This invention is in the field of lasers, and is particularly concerned with those lasers using gases as their active mediums. Gas lasers are known in the art with various gases and various pumping methods for these gases. For example, cabon dioxide and neon-helium are typical gases; electrical discharges through the gases and high frequency electromagnetic waves applied to the gases are typical pumping methods. My own contributions to the field of light sources including lasers are those inventions shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,374,393 of Mar. 19, 1968 and 3,493,845 of Feb. 3, 1970. These patents deal with microwave pumping of a plasma to produce respectively incoherent and coherent radiation. The coherent radiation is produced when the first excited state of the atoms of the radiation emitting element is metastable, and with the atoms in a suitable structure.